Digital lighting technologies, i.e. illumination based on semiconductor light sources, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), offer a viable alternative to traditional fluorescent, HID, and incandescent lamps. Functional advantages and benefits of LEDs include high energy conversion and optical efficiency, durability, lower operating costs, and many others. Recent advances in LED technology have provided efficient and robust full-spectrum lighting sources that enable a variety of lighting effects in many applications.
It is desirable for drivers seeking to reclaim vehicles parked in parking lots and/or garages to be able to find their vehicles. Many parking lots/garages are organized into sections, each being designated (e.g., using signs) with various combinations of numbers, letters and/or symbols. A driver may be expected to make note of which sign she parked closest to, so that she later can remember to return to that general section when reclaiming her vehicle. However, if a significant amount of time passes before the driver reclaims her vehicle, she may not remember which section she parked in. Or, if another driver comes to reclaim the vehicle, the other driver may have no knowledge of which section contains the vehicle.
It is also desirable to have knowledge of how many parking spots are available for use by new vehicles entering a parking lot/garage, which parking spots are occupied, and/or which parking spots are unoccupied. For example, drivers or passengers (either to which is referred to herein by the term “user”) of vehicles entering the parking garage/lot may be directed to unoccupied parking spots, or incoming drivers may be warned if no parking spots exist or are only available in undesirable locations (e.g., on floors that are not handicap-accessible).
One approach to solve these problems is to track vehicles using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to capture a registration plate of a vehicle. The vehicle is tracked while in the garage by a number of infrared cameras, which feed details of where the vehicle is parked into the system. Unoccupied parking bays are highlighted to the driver using green lights. Details are printed on a ticket provided to a driver of the vehicle. On returning to reclaim her vehicle, the driver inserts the ticket into a “car finder” kiosk. The kiosk renders a three-dimensional map showing where the driver's vehicle is parked, as well as lifts and stairs that make it easier to find the vehicle.
A problem with this approach is that there is a tradeoff between the number of cameras installed versus installation costs, which may depend on the layout of the building. Moreover, if there is no overlap in the view between two cameras, or if a single camera fails, the tracing of a vehicle might be lost in the gaps between the active cameras. In these gaps, a parked car might leave and might be swapped with a traced car. Additionally, the driver must remember where her vehicle is parked after viewing the three-dimensional map. If she forgets on her way to the vehicle or misinterpreted the map to begin with, she may have trouble finding her vehicle.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide methods and systems for tracking vehicles' positions in parking garages/lots using simpler means, as well as more robust means for showing drivers where to find their vehicles.